Farrakhan’s Friend, Hillary’s Friend
05.01.2008 - 6:41 AMI rarely pay attention to Colbert King, and when I do, I seldom agree with him. But he delivers the goods today.
Here is the video clip that he calls attention to in his Washington Post column:
Governor Rendell endorsed Hillary Clinton back in January.
Barack Obama has now forcefully — if tardily — denounced the hateful Reverend Wright, with whom he had a close association over two decades.
Through Rendell, Hillary now enjoys two degrees of separation from Louis Farrakhan — but even six degrees of separation would be too close. Whatever she now says or does not say about Rendell’s willingness to associate with Farrakhan, and to heap praise on the Nation of Islam, this is a sickening video.
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May 1st, 2008 at 8:28 AM
True. Nevertheles, Governor Rendell has “enjoyed” a reputation of being a bit of a political panderer and this praise for Farrakhan is somewhat par for the course. Barack Obama has campaigned on being a “different type of politician” who , however, now can be seen as cynically embracing Wright for political purposes when his political landscape was limited to a local district in Chicago and then the state of Illinois. In a sense, Obama has pandered to Wright when it suited his political needs and then threw him down the memory hole (denying a close relationship despite his own statements and history to the contrary over the years describing Wright as his “sounding board” and “moral compass”) or under the bus when Wright became a political problem. Therefore, Obama can be perceived as being both a panderer and a cynic. We knew about Rendell; we are learning about Obama. He is a politician-Chicago variety.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:17 AM
Evidently, Farrakhan can influence some voters in Philly.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:57 AM
Exactly what the first two posters say. I wouldn’t have known Rendell if I found him dead in my lunchbox — had no particular prior opinion of him — but he’s wearing a big scarlet “P” for Panderer in this video. What a performance. I bet you anything you could find a video of him in a yarmulka pandering to the left-wing Jewish vote too.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:39 PM
And forget not that Governor Rendell, although apparently he does not wish it to be widely known, is Jewish. So who is more culpable? Rendell and therefore Clinton. Or Wright and therefore Obama, who at least has had the decency to disassociate himself with Farrakhan’s anti-semitic stance…But most of all does any one here posting know what it is that Farrakhan believes today, since the statements attributed to him date from apparently 20 years ago. Has he modified or repudiated them? Does it matter? And if so, how?
May 1st, 2008 at 4:52 PM
How anyone, Mr. Lasky, can have read the Philadelphia speech, watched Wright’s media blitzkrieg organized by Barbara Reynolds, an avid Hillary Clinton supporter (the lady in the yellow dress sitting next to and whispering to Wright before he got up to speak at the National Press club) and Obama’s quiet and firm denunciation of Wright and the reason for it, and still come out with the simplistic Clinton talking points on this issue is beyond me.
Yes, as Obama admitted, Wright and his church (an exceedingly well connected one on the South Side of Chicago) gave Obama as a young outsider and would be organizer, street credentials. Just what is it that is so nefarious about that? Also Wright at his best, which is about 95% of the time, is dazzling. I have seen White, Republican, very conservative Federal Judges, listen to the man in wrapt awe as he eulogizes a deceased Black lawyer or Judge. His prophetic type of critique of some of the ills of this society can be both powerful and correct and certainly amusing in their delivery if nothing else. His is one of the best shows in town on a Sunday morning. He is a respected leader of one of the United Churches of Christ which number 55,000.
And it is also understandable that the young Obama, deserted by his Black father at age 2, might have turned to the passionate and engaged older man, as a surrogate father as well. It is admirable not to want to turn your back on someone who was dear to you for politically expedient reasons. It is decent. It is the right thing to do. It is, by G… the Jewish thing to do…
BUT when that man, out of wounded narcissism sets out to destroy a candidacy, doing vindictive harm, not just to Obama but to the many millions of voters who believe in him, who have worked hard for him, who have donate to his candidacy… it is time to say BASTA. And Obama did. Firmly, sadly and with personal pain. Huckabee had it, once again, exactly right. He set out to destroy the Abama candidacy. “Oh you think you can rise up out of the Black Ghetto do you? You think you can transcend racism, do you. I’ll show you. And what’s more, Whites just think we are monkies, so I’ll prance around this stage and act like a monkey and they’ll identify it with you.” Because Wright is too much of a showboat and an egomaniac to allow the young man to escape from the racist thrall, he insists we are all mired in.
And you Mr. Lasky, see none of the Shakespean complexity and just feed us stale, hackney talking point sound bites. Stale. Wearisome. Cliche. And oh so uninteresting compared to the reality.